India, July 5 -- A Delhi trial court's refusal to entertain fresh bail pleas by Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the Delhi riots conspiracy case may be on account of legal reasons, but it exposes a deeper institutional problem: The constitutional principles governing bail, repeatedly articulated by the Supreme Court, have still not become the working philosophy of trial courts.

The trial judge was confronted with a January apex court order that expressly deferred any renewed plea until protected witnesses were examined or a year had elapsed. Faced with that direction, the trial court considered itself bound. But the outcome is troubling because, in May, another apex court bench reaffirmed what a larger bench had already held in KA Najeeb...